


Wanting Home

by whitehorsetiger



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Captured, Established Relationship, Fluff, M/M, Mer AU, Minor Character Death, held captive
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-20
Updated: 2018-05-20
Packaged: 2019-05-09 11:05:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,953
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14714846
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whitehorsetiger/pseuds/whitehorsetiger
Summary: Lance shifted through the water silently, watching and waiting for his opportunity. His prey was fast, but he was faster. If they got a head start though, he would have no chance of catching up. Lance wouldn’t lose though, he was a shark, ferocious predator of the sea. Just a bit closer, there. Flicking his tail powerfully, Lance shot through the water. He was almost there when he was spotted, but it was too late. Lance slammed into the other mer at almost full-speed, wrapping his arms around a slender waist.“Gotcha!” he yelled.Lance is happy, living with his mate and pod in the ocean, travelling from place to place and discovering new things. After a searching through a sunken ship with Pidge and Hunk he is captured by some humans. Forced into captivity Lance must find a way to keep soldiering on and hopefully find a way back to his family.





	Wanting Home

Lance shifted through the water silently, watching and waiting for his opportunity. His prey was fast, but he was faster. If they got a head start though, he would have no chance of catching up. Lance wouldn’t lose though, he was a shark, ferocious predator of the sea. Just a bit closer, there. Flicking his tail powerfully, Lance shot through the water. He was almost there when he was spotted, but it was too late. Lance slammed into the other mer at almost full-speed, wrapping his arms around a slender waist.  
“Gotcha!” he yelled.

“What? The? Lance!” Keith shouted, twisting in his arms.  
Lance laughed, flicking his tail idly, pulling the two of them along. Keith huffed, whacking Lance in the face with one of his fins. Lance growled playfully, nipping at the soft skin just above the scales of Keith’s tail.  
“Lance,” Keith laughed, trying to wriggle out of the shark’s grip, “Get off.”  
“Never! You’re mine now,” Lance said, “You’ll never get away!”  
Keith smirked, gently resting his hands on Lance’s cheeks, guiding him up into a kiss.  
“Why would I want to get away,” he said softly, before bringing their lips together.  
Lance didn’t notice that his grip was getting looser, until Keith twisted out of it and swam away.   
“What was that about not letting me go?” he said, tilting his head to one side.  
“Keith!” Lance shouted, giving chase.

The two of them darted through the water, chasing around and around each other.  
“Hey!” Pidge shouted suddenly, causing them both to freeze, “Allura said it’s time to get moving, come on!”  
“Oh yeah,” Lance said, “That’s why I came to get you.”  
Keith rolled his eyes, flicking past Lance.  
“Dolt,” he said affectionately, flicking his tail in Lance’s face.  
“Hey! I was distracted,” Lance pouted, following after him.  
Keith shook his head. Lance stuck his tongue out at Keith’s back, chasing after him and wrapping his arms around his neck.  
“Lance,” Keith grumbled.  
“Yes?”  
“What are you doing?”  
“Hitching a lift.”  
“Could you not?”  
“No.”  
Keith huffed out a laugh, turning to look over his shoulder at Lance’s face.  
“Alright you lazy remora,” he said, before darting off, Lance still attached to his back.

****

Their pod moved around a lot, never spending more than a few days in one place. There was a lot to discover in the ocean, so this life suited Lance just fine. Even better, when the only other option was being on his own.

Lance very carefully extracted himself from the tangle of Keith’s arms and tail, pressing a kiss delicately to the other mer’s temple before leaving him curled up asleep in their temporary den.  
“Ready to go?” Pidge said brightly as Lance slipped out.  
“Hell yes,” Lance grinned, “Where’s Hunk?”  
“He needs a bit of encouragement,” Pidge smiled.  
“I think we can manage that,” Lance said.

“This is a terrible idea,” Hunk said, trailing after the two of them.  
“It’s going to be fine!” Lance said.  
“Yeah! Come on! We’ve been to loads of wrecks before,” Pidge added.  
“And something always goes wrong,” Hunk protested.  
“And we come out of it just fine!” Lance said, “But fine, you can leave us.”  
“Let us do this by ourselves,” Pidge added.  
“Then live with yourself when we get hurt,” Lance shook his head.  
“Always wondering what would have happened if you had just been there,” Pidge nodded dejectedly.  
Hunk sighed, shaking his head and rolling his eyes.  
“Come on, lets get this over with.”

Lance wove in and out of the ship’s rooms with ease, squeezing through portholes and cracking open chests. There was always a lot of interesting things in shipwrecks, Lance always liked sifting through them. He couldn’t really take much with him, maybe the occasional gift. Pidge liked looking at all the different things, trying to work out what they did. Hunk spent about half his time searching through things and the other half worriedly following the other two around.

“We should probably go back,” Hunk said after a while, “Everyone will be going hunting soon.”  
“Yeah, yeah, ok,” Pidge said, “Come on Lance.”  
“Just a second,” Lance replied, wriggling his way out of the corner he’d wedged himself in.  
“Elegant,” Pidge said, crossing her arms.  
Lance ruffled her hair as he swam past.  
“I can’t look stunning all the time Pidge, it’s intimidating,” Lance shrugged, “I’ve got to give others a chance.”  
“Ass,” Pidge called after him.  
Lance laughed, darting off.

The problem with fine plastic nets was they were impossible to see until you swam into them, as Lance suddenly discovered the hard way. He screeched in alarm as he was tangled up in the net, the fine weave cutting easily into his skin.  
“Lance!” Hunk shouted, him and Pidge darting over.  
They immediately began trying to free him, cutting the net with their claws. It began to haul him up though, towards the surface. They’d not been swimming particularly deep, there wasn’t enough time.  
“Pidge, go back and get the rest of the pod, Hunk, help me slow this thing down,” Lance snapped, twisting himself in the net so he could swim down.  
This caused it to wrap even tighter around him, but that was not important. Pidge darted off as Hunk held tightly onto Lance’s arms, helping pull him down. The two of them could only do so much though, only slowing his progress a little.

He was pulled out of the water tail-first. Lance desperately tried to fight against it, but once his entire tail was out there wasn’t much hope. Hunk was trying as hard as he could to pull Lance back into the water, but without Lance’s help he was rising faster than ever. As his full weight was pressed onto the net, Lance hissed in pain as it cut deeply. Hunk was still hanging on, trying to pull Lance down. He had no chance though, the pod were too far away.  
“I’m sorry Hunk,” Lance said.  
“You’re what?” Hunk said.  
Lance reached out, swinging his hand, slashing at Hunk’s shoulder with his claws. Hunk yelled in pain, releasing Lance and falling into the water. He did feel bad about it, but at least Hunk would be ok.

Lance was not going down without a fight, no matter how much the net dug into him. He thrashed, snarling and baring his teeth as he was lowered onto the boat. The humans around him were talking, but Lance had no idea what they were saying. He hissed, swinging his free arm to try and slash at them if they came too near.

His arm was pinned down, his shoulders pinned too. Lance’s tail thrashed, but they seemed to avoid him pretty well. His head was cut free from the net, forced up so they could wrap something around his mouth. His hands were wrapped too, completely covering his claws. It was only then he was shoved and rolled into a hatch in the deck. He fell for a short distance before splashing into some too-shallow water. The hatch above him slammed closed and Lance was plunged into darkness.

****

Keith was used to waking up alone when they came to a new area, it was the only time Lance ever woke up before him. Stretching out his arms and fins, Keith pushed himself off the bottom of the small crevice they’d sheltered in. Shiro, Allura and Coran were already out and about, searching through the sand and rocks for anything to eat. Keith lazily flicked his way over to them, floating idly in the water.  
“We’re going to have to go hunting?” he asked.  
“Looks like,” Allura sighed, moving to float alongside him, “Although we’ll have to wait for the others to come back.”  
“They shouldn’t be too long,” Shiro said, joining them.

The cry of alarm caught everyone’s attention.  
“Pidge?” Shiro said.  
The four of them all rapidly moved towards her, even so, she continued to call out to them.  
“Pidge? Pidge, what’s wrong?” Allura asked as they caught up with her.  
“Lance and Hunk, there’s a net, we need to go!” she cried, flipping over to speed off.  
Keith felt something icy cold drop into the pit of his stomach, he shot off in the direction of the sunken ship they’d spotted yesterday.

The scent and taste of blood hit him, causing Keith to let out an involuntary alarmed sound. He sped up as best he could, following the blood trail.  
“Lance!” he called out, “Lance!”  
There was more blood in the water, Keith was frantic looking for the source.  
“Hunk!” Pidge called out, pointing.  
The five of them darted towards him. Hunk was clutching his arm, the shoulder cut open with four clean cuts.  
“Where’s Lance?” Pidge asked.  
Keith had a feeling he wouldn’t like the answer.  
“He’s gone,” Hunk said, his eyes wide, “They drew him up onto their boat, he scratched me to get me to let him go.”  
“No,” Keith said, backing up.  
“Keith,” Shiro said softly, reaching out.  
“NO!” Keith yelled, darting away, “He can’t be gone, he just can’t be!”  
“Keith, no one comes back from the boats,” Allura said softly.  
“He can’t, he can’t,” Keith said, curling in on himself, “He can’t be gone, Lance.”  
Keith wailed, a horrible heart-wrenching sound, causing the others to flinch. His mate was gone, Lance was gone and there was no coming back.

****

Lance was scared, he curled up as tightly as he could in the darkness. His hand was curled around his shark-tooth necklace, he took comfort in Keith having a matching one, to signify their bond. The water was barely half way up his body, sloshing slightly as the boat moved. The bindings around his hands and his muzzle were impossible to get off, at least in the pitch black. It was looking a little hopeless.

Lance flinched away as the hatch was opened, light flooding the container he was in. Forcing his eyes open to take in his surroundings, Lance looked up to see several human faces, looking down at him. He tried to hiss, but it lost its impact as the muzzle muffled it. They seemed to be talking, but again, Lance didn’t understand their language. Suddenly the area beneath him began to move, rising him up towards the people. He tried to move away, but there was no water for him to swim though, or to support his heavy tail.

He was hauled out of the ship, over the side and into something else. There was a lot more water, so Lance could swim around a little. It wasn’t very big though, he hit glass after barely a tail flick. It began to move and Lance regretted being able to see. There were so many creatures, filling many many tanks. There were a few mer, some fish, some sharks, some seals. None of them looked very happy.

Lance was slotted in between two other tanks, between two others mers. He glanced between the two of them, curling his tail tighter around himself. They both looked as scared as he felt, flaring their fins.  
“Where am I?” Lance tried to ask, but the muzzle stopped any attempt.  
Humans were walking up and down between the tanks, looking at the creatures inside. One of them walked right up to Lance’s tank, tapping on the glass. Lance flinched away from the horribly loud sound.

****

This system continued for a few days, or at least what Lance thought were days. The lights were clicked on, people walked between the tanks looking at them, another chunk of fish the lights were clicked off. It was unbelievably boring and the lack of his pod caused an ache in his chest that just seemed to grow. The other mer surrounding him helped a little, although they couldn’t talk to each other they’d developed some hand signals.

Lance was floating idly in the centre of his tank, there wasn’t much point in moving, or anything really. He was so hungry, it had been days since he had last eaten. Some of the humans were stood in front of his tank, Lance recognised one of them as the one who tossed him chunks of fish. They were talking and pointing to him, but at this point he really couldn’t care.

They moved away again, leaving him to float again. Then, the tank started to move. Lance jolted slightly, sinking to the bottom so he wouldn’t move around too much. What was happening now? He was taken from his place between the two other mer, them waving goodbye as they’d seen the humans do. Lance waved back, not really wanting to go but not having much of a choice. He was hauled out of his tank again, dropped into an even smaller one. Doors were shut behind him, once again plunging Lance into darkness.

****

He was hauled out of the smaller tank and the muzzle was finally removed. Lance hissed and snarled, snapping at the humans that were stood close to him. Lance was lowered into another tank, released to float in the water. This one, was much bigger.

Lance could actually swim, well, to a certain degree. There were some rocks and sand at the bottom of this one, weeds seeming to grow up from the bottom. Lance circled the tank once, then caught a scent he was all too familiar with. There were other mers in here. He followed the scent to an indentation in the rock, where three other mer were curled up.  
“Don’t eat us,” one of them said.   
“I’m not going to eat you,” Lance said, leaning over slightly, “I don’t eat other mer, no matter how hungry I get. My mate is a fish-mer, it would be strange.”

The one who had spoken slipped out from the heap they’d made themselves, swimming up so she was face-to-face with Lance.  
“Oh, we assumed as he expected you to eat us,” she said, gesturing.  
Lance turned, looking and spotting a human looking into the tank, watching them.  
“You can understand him?” Lance asked, turning back to her.  
“Of course, you can’t?” the mer replied.  
The other two slipped out from the crevice, floating just behind her.  
“No, I haven’t had much contact with humans,” Lance said.  
“You haven’t? Where are you from?”  
“The ocean,” Lance replied.  
“The ocean? Really?” one of the other mers said, peaking around the first one, “What’s it like there?”  
“Plaxum, hush,” the first mer said, “You were taken from the ocean? So you don’t understand the humans?”  
Lance shook his head, “That’s right.”  
She nodded, “Alright then, I am Luxia, this is Florona and Plaxum.”  
“Lance.”

****

Living in the tank was an unusual experience. For one, there wasn’t a great deal of room to swim around. For another, he didn’t have to hunt, they were simply fed already dead fish. Finally, there was no meeting anyone else. There was him, Luxia, Florona and Plaxum, that was it. In short, it was not good. Lance missed the open waters, missed chasing his dinner, most of all, he missed Keith and the rest of his pod.

“Is that from your mate?” Plaxum asked, pointing at the sharks tooth.  
“We have matching ones,” Lance replied, brushing his fingers across it lightly, “It signifies we’re mates.”  
“That’s sweet,” Plaxum said, tilting her head to one side, “Do you go hunting together and things.”  
“Yeah, we did,” Lance said, curling a hand over his chest.  
“Plaxum, hush,” Luxia said, “You’re prying again.”  
“Sorry,” Plaxum said, looking away.  
“No, don’t worry, I don’t mind,” Lance smiled.

The three mermaids had been bred and raised in captivity, they’d never been out to the ocean. Plaxum seemed obsessed with asking Lance all about it, although once he’d started talking Luxia and Florona always gathered around to listen. Lance liked it, it broke up the monotony of the day.  
“So you just swim wherever you want?” Plaxum asked.  
Lance nodded, “We change locations every few days, it means we get to explore a lot.”  
“Wow,” Plaxum said softly.  
“That sounds amazing,” Florona added, “And you only know human things from searching sunken ships?”  
Lance nodded, “They’re amazing things to look around, that’s how I met Keith you know.”  
“That’s a story you haven’t told us,” Luxia said, “How did a mer-shark end up with a mer-fish as a mate?”  
“It’s a long story,” Lance chuckled awkwardly.  
“We have a lot of time,” Florona said, perking up, “Please tell us.”  
“Alright then.”

****

There was something wrong with Florona. It had started a few days ago simply with her not feeling too well. She’d curled up in the small cove they liked to hide in and refused to move. Lance, Luxia and Plaxum tried to help her feel better, bringing her food and using their tails to keep the water around her moving. It was all they really could do to help. Unfortunately, she only seemed to get worse.

“So, then what happened?” Florona asked, head pillowed on her arms.  
“Well, there wasn’t really much I could do,” Lance said, “So I just sort of laid there for a bit, trapped under this boat until Hunk and Pidge finally found me. After Pidge had finished laughing at me, they finally helped lift the boat enough so I could wriggle free. Suppose I got lucky with that.”  
“Did you get trapped under ships often?”  
“Not under them, in them yes, more often than I want to tell you.”  
Florona giggled, fins fluttering weakly. It had been a while since anyone had got her to smile. She seemed to be drifting off again and Lance, for once, couldn’t’ think of anything to say.  
“Could you tell us the story of the sharks again?” Plaxum asked suddenly, flicking over to lay beside them, “That’s one of our favourites.”  
Lance nodded, “Sure thing.”

She only got worse, waking up only to eat.  
“I hoped it wasn’t,” Luxia sighed, “She won’t survive much longer.”  
“There’s nothing we can do?” Lance asked, curling an arm around himself.  
Luxia shook her head, “Look at her fins, see how there are holes in them? That’s the end stages.”  
“We’ve lost a lot of mer to this,” Plaxum nodded seriously, “Sometimes it can be stopped before it sets in, but…”  
The three of them looked to the cove where Florona was curled up asleep.  
“We must keep her as comfortable as possible, that is all we can do,” Luxia said.  
“Do you not have anything like this?” Plaxum asked.  
“We have a sickness,” Lance said softly, “But it never gets this bad.”

 They curled around her in a heap, Lance’s long tail almost encompassing all three of the mermaids. Florona’s gills were fluttering weakly, they’d started to gum up so she had to go to the surface often to breathe. Even then, she’d cough up gunk form her lungs. Lance pushed himself up to lean on his elbows. Untangling his tail from around them, he pushed away from the bottom. There was a lot of noise from outside the tank, lot of people talking. Plaxium had been teaching him how to understand them, but it was very complicated. It also didn’t help that they were all talking over each other.

Luxia floated up beside him, watching the humans through the glass.  
“They are taking Florona away,” she said.  
“What?” Lance snapped.  
“It is for the best,” Luxia said, “If they don’t, we may all die.”  
“It’s not fair,” Lance said softly.  
Luxia shook her head.  
“This is the life of a captive mer, you have to learn to live like this. You are one of us now,” she said, before floating off.

****

Lance drummed his finger against the glass, looking out into the room.  
“Lance,” Plaxum said, floating up beside him, “I brought you some dinner.”  
“I’m not hungry.”  
“You need to eat,” she replied, “Please.”  
Lance let out a long breath, he was sick of fish.   
“Maybe later,” he said.  
Plaxum’s fins drooped as she nodded.  
“Ok, he’s watching pour favourite show if you want to come see?” she said.  
“Yeah,” Lance smiled at her, “I’ll be over in a second.”  
Plaxum nodded, flicking away to the other side of the tank. Lance let out a long breath, resting his forehead against the glass.  
“I’m sorry Keith,” he said softly, “Looks like I may have to leave you after all.”  
He pushed away from the glass, floating over to where Luxia and Plaxum were watching the TV through the glass.  
“So, what’s happening?”

Lance had given up. Even throughout the whole ordeal, he had hoped, hoped there was a way for him to go home. So many days had passed, boredom was steadily eating away at him, the bland monotony of food wasn’t helping. Plaxum and Luxia were trying to help, but Lance didn’t want to talk about the ocean anymore. There was a chasm in his chest, talking about it just made it worse.

Lance floated in the middle of the tank, staring out into the empty room. His head jerked up, looking around suddenly.  
“Can you hear that?” he said.  
“Shouting? Yeah,” Plaxum said, “I can’t understand them though.”  
Luxia joined them, pressing her hands to the glass.  
“It doesn’t sound good.”  
The door banged open, causing the three of them to jump. Many people charged in, shouting. The three of them glanced at each other, before darting to try and hide in the crevice.

It didn’t really help, their rocks were removed and they were hauled from the tank one by one. Lance didn’t even have the energy to hiss or growl at them. The three of them were bound down to large plastic things. None of them could move.  
“What’s happening?” Lance called out.  
“They’re moving us somewhere,” Luxia said, “I don’t know where.”

They were loaded up into something, then back into darkness.  
“So, now we wait,” Luxia said.  
“Hey Lance,” Plaxum said, “What do you think the new place will be like?”  
“As long as they have better food,” Lance said.

****

The tank he was lowered into was much bigger than the last one, it was outdoors, it even had a little platform where he could lay in the sun. It didn’t stop it being a tank though. Lance managed to circle the whole thing in a few minutes. He surfaced, looking around. There wasn’t much around, although there was a large net where the tank was divided and over the top. Lance swam over to it, looking over. There was another tank on the other side. He couldn’t see anyone in there though. He wondered where Plaxum and Luxia were, but he couldn’t really go looking for them.

Something smelled amazing. Lance perked up, flicking his head from side to side. He darted towards it, following the scent. Something was sinking in the water, the same way the dead fish did, but it smelled so much more appealing. Lance shot towards it, catching it easily. He sank his teeth into it, devouring it as quickly as he could. After nothing but boring fish, it was divine. It reminded him of seal, although there was a slightly different taste. He groaned in pleasure, licking the remnants off his fingers. That was so much better.

“Lance? Lance?” Lance perked up at the sound of his name.  
“Plaxum?” Lance asked, surfacing.  
“Lance! Luxia, look, it’s Lance!” she called.  
Lance smiled, swimming over to the two of them. They were in the other tank, looking through the net at him.  
“Hey,” he said.  
“Hi,” Plaxum said, “We were worried about you.”  
“Oh?” Lance replied.  
“They were also worried you would eat us,” Luxia said, “Despite finding us together.”  
“Humans are strange,” Lance shook his head.

****

Lance was having a bit of a better time. With the bigger tank to swim around in and the interesting variety of food. They once gave him a whole crab to break open himself. With his claws now unwrapped it was very easy for him to do.

He lay on the small bit of ground, most of his tail still in the water as he sunbathed. He was half asleep, swaying his tail lazily from side to side. The sound of footsteps, probably of the humans walking past overhead. He yawned and stretched, before crying out in alarm. Something big and heavy dropped over him, followed by yelling and the sound of many feet. Lance thrashed, trying to get his head free to bite. He was pinned down all too quickly though. The humans moved around him, Lance had no idea what they were doing but next thing he knew he was being hauled up.

He didn’t really know where he was going, or really what was happening. There was something over his head the whole time.

Lance could hear the ocean, he jerked his head from side to side. Whatever was over his eyes was taken off, and Lance was staring at the ocean, at his home. He wriggled, trying to get out of where he was tied up. The humans were talking, but Lance didn’t really care what they were saying. He was lowered into the water; his straps were released. Lance darted away, using his hands to claw through the sand and drag him deeper. He was free, he was home. Now, all he had to do was find his pod, that moved around all the time and rarely went to the same place twice. Lance paused, there was one place he could go, one place they may return to.

****

Keith stared out over the ocean, watching the rise and fall of the waves. It was oddly pretty. He curled his hands around his shark-tooth necklace, looking down at it. He remembered when Lance gave it too him, showing off his own matching one. Apparently they had fallen out of Jessie, when asked if she was Lance’s favourite shark, he’d gasped dramatically and said he couldn’t possibly pick a favourite. Keith smiled sadly at the memory, sighing as he turned it over and over in his hand.

“Keith?” Shiro surfaced not far away.  
Keith sighed, looking away from him, twitching his fins.  
“Keith we need to get moving,” Shiro said, swimming over.  
Keith let go of his necklace, looking down at his hands.  
“Keith?”  
“I heard you, I’m coming,” Keith said, sliding off the rock into the water.

Ever since they’d lost Lance, everyone stuck as close together as they could. Keith often found himself at the bottom of a cuddle pile, but it didn’t really help the icy feeling in his chest. Hunk and Pidge were flanking him on either side, keeping him close. There was another pod of mer heading towards them, singing brightly. Mer sang for all different reasons the main ones were to attract a mate and to tell a story. These ones were telling a story, not one of their own though.

They were singing of a mer who was captured by humans, who made friends with captive mer, who lost one of their friends, who was moved again before being returned to the ocean, who was now searching for their family.  
“That’s an interesting song,” Allura said, “Where did you hear it from?”  
“Another pod, they heard it from another pod, who heard if from a lone reef mer, who heard it from a lone shark mer who heard it from another pod.”  
“Where was the original song from?” Allura asked.  
“Oh, a shark mer, by the old wreck near the reef to the south.”  
“Thank you,” Allura nodded, before turning to the others, “Come along then.”  
“You don’t think that could be…?” Hunk started.  
“It’s not Lance,” Keith said coldly.  
“We can’t assume it’s Lance, however, it won’t hurt to talk to someone who had interaction with humans.”  
Keith glowered and turned away.  
“Lets get this over with then.”

They swam, towards where the song was sung. As they got closer and closer, Keith recognised where they were going.  
“No,” he said, stopping dead in the water, “I can’t go back there.”  
“Keith…” Shiro started.  
“No, I can’t go back there Shiro!” Keith said, “I can’t, not there.”  
He couldn’t, he couldn’t go back to the wreck where he met Lance.  
“We’ll rest here for the night,” Allura said, “We shall go there tomorrow, you don’t have to go if you don’t want to.”  
Keith turned away, he wouldn’t go back there.

Someone was singing, it was the middle of the night and someone was singing. Keith frowned, sitting up and tilting his head to one side. There was something awfully familiar about that voice, something calling to him. Carefully wriggling out of the pile, Keith followed the echoing voice. Something deep inside him reacted to the voice, he didn’t even realise he was approaching the wreck until he was right in front of it. Keith slipped inside, following the voice until he was led into one of the large open rooms. There, in the centre was the source of the singing. A very familiar shark-mer.  
“Lance?” Keith said.  
The mer turned, his singing cutting off. A brilliant smile lightly up his face.  
“Keith.”  
“Lance!” Keith shouted, shooting towards Lance.  
Lance opened his arms wide, Keith crashed straight into them.  
“You’re here! You’re alive!” Keith said, clinging tightly to Lance.  
“I’m here,” Lance said, “I’m right here.”  
He gathered Keith up in his arms and the curve of his tail, running his fingers through his hair. Keith rested his hands on Lance’s cheeks, pressing their lips together.  
“I thought I’d lost you,” Keith said, “I thought you were gone forever.”  
Lance smiled softly, holding Keith as close as he could.  
“Do I have a story to tell you.”

**Author's Note:**

> This idea's been knocking around in my head for a while, so in the spirit of mermay I thought I may as well write it down.
> 
> Anyway, I hope you enjoyed it.


End file.
